Mode of attaching labels to bales



UNITED STATES PATENT EETCE.,

EDWARD A. LOC/KE, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

MODE OF ATTACHING LABELS TO BALES, &C.

Specication forming part of Letters Patent N0. 40,109, dated September 29, 1863.

.To all whom it may concern.-

Beit known that I, EDWARD A. LooKE, of Boston, in the county of `Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Attaching Labels to Bales of Fibrons Material; and I do hereby declare that the following, taken in connection with the drawing which accompanies and forms part of this specification, is a description of my invention sufficient to enable those skilled in the art to practice it.

In arecent application for a patent made by H. W. Goodrich and myself, which application is now pending, We claim a device to be inserted in a bale of cotton or other fibrous material, such device having attached thereto an identifying-mark and being so made as easily to penetrate the bale, while it is of difticult extraction therefrom.

My present invention consists in a method of forcing or carrying such an instrument or device into the bale, and in a peculiar construction of the fastening-instrument for this purpose.

Thev drawing shows a section of the carrier and the hook.

A denotes the shank of the tool, and B the handle. The point c is made with a long taper, so that it will easily open or force aside the fiber as it enters. A slot, D, is made in or through the shank, a groove, f, running therefrom along the side of the shank. [nto this slot a hook, a., of the fastener or anchor E is made to extend, the adjacent part of the anchor lying in the groove f or upon the surface ofthe shank A. The upper end or point of the anchor sets out from the shank or against the surface thereof, but not in the groove. A wire, C, is fastened to the anchor, to Which Wire the label or identifying-mark is to be attached, the anchor beingvhooked into the carrier. The shank is inserted or pushed into the bale to the desired depth, carrying with it the anchor, when upon drawing back the carrier the hook will slip out of the slot or the shank be drawn away from the hook, leaving the anchor embedded in the bale. Now, if force be applied to the -Wre to draw out the anchor, the outward point catches in the ber and causes the anchor to turn and present its whole length against the fiber in resistance to the force used to drawit out, the resistance increasing as the pull upon the Wire is increased.

In the application above referred to a carrier is shown which carries the hook-fastener or anchor on its point and in continuation axially of the shank of the same, the point of the anchor forming the entering Wedge of the instrument and being left in the bale. Such adevice, as also a device Where the anchor and carrier form one instrument, are objectionable, as they require more material in their formation, are more expensive, and less efficient than the instrument or anchoring device here shown. By making the tool to carry the anchor, as described, I can make the anchoring device of wire or cheap material in which it is only necessary that it possesses sufficient strength and rigidity to form thereupon the hook and to resist any strain brought upon its wire to extract it.

I would remark that the edges of the shank of my carrier adjacent to its entering point may be so sharpened or formed as to cut the fibers as they enter; but edges so made soon become dull by contact with foreign substances as well as in operation against the fiber, and mare practically of no utility', the carrier depending for efficiency of insertion into the bale upon the long taper given to the shank or point of the shank to displace the ber, and not upon any cutting-power which can be given to its edges.

Having in the process of construction of these instruments invented and made them with cuttingedges, and thus made inserted them in bales of cotton, I have 4ascertained the above facts, and therefore prefer to make the carrier with only the taper, as a cuttingedge soon becomes by use nothing but an angular edge, with little or no power to cut.

l claim- I. The carrier A, when made with an end gradually tapering to a point and preceding the anchoring device, provision being made in or on the carrier for attachment thereunto of the detachable anchor.

2. So making the anchor that it may be attached to the side and near the point of the carrier, so as to pass easily into the bale with the carrier and be left therein on Withdrawal of the same.

EDWARD A LOCKE.

Witnesses:

J. B. CROSBY, FRANCIS GoULD. 

